IPF Cites Discrepancies, Pending Bills as Bottlenecks to Development

The Institute of Public Finance on Tuesday released its fourth edition of the Annual National Shadow Budget themed; “Budgeting in an Era of Fiscal Consolidation: Protecting Key Priorities.”

The report notes that the current discrepancies on budget allocations, low budget absorption rates, pending bills headaches and duplication of functions are impacting efforts by the government to achieve its fiscal consolidation strategies.

Gracing the occasion, Teso south Member of Parliament who is also the Vice Chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee of the National Assembly shared with us her thoughts about the thorny issue of pending bills. This is what she had to say:

“Pending bills is a problem recurring, accumulating year in year out we are concerned as legislators, we are concerned as a country. The reasons we are being given do not justify delays or non-payment of pending bills. I think there is something we can do as legislators and as a country. One, since every institution or MDA must requisition for funding from the Controller of Budget, before making any payment, I think it would be prudent for us to amend the PFM to give the Controller of Budget more powers, so that she is able to follow through the money from her office all through the way to the Commercial banks, or to the County Government. So that monies requisitioned for a specific project or item, must be used for that purpose, must pay that particular expenditure, so that these monies are not diverted. Secondly, we also must become more credible in our budgeting: so that we are not over-ambitious in our revenue projections because at the end of the day, we overprojected, we were too ambitious, we did not meet our expectations, so we end up with pending bills. Becayse we advertised, we procured, we engaged contactors, knowing that we have this budget. I think that’s another area we need to become more realistic in our budgeting, and also there is need for timely release of exchequer. So national treasury needs to relese exchequer on time, because sometimes exchequer is released towards the end of the financial year, when we have a week or two weeks or a month to the closure of the financial year. So you find that counties and ministries are not able to absorb the money. So the money is returned, we remain with pending bills. What is important and what has been highlighted by IPF here today, that as we review, as we discuss, our estimates and make recommendations to the House, we need to ask the crucial questions: How aligned are our budget estimates to the BPS? Key Government priorities, how aligned are they? Secondly, we also need to be keen on the value for money. A project has been proposed, we need to analyse, we have the capacity, we are advised accordingly by our Secretariat, we need to see the value for money. And advise the MDAs correctly. Our focus even as a Committee is that we must complete ongoing projects before we begin to fund new projects. So if a ministry, an agency, a county has an ongoing project can they first prioritize and put money for that project so that there is value for money for the Kenyans. And also we need to protect the vulnerable. We even look at how engendered the budget is. We look at gender issues. How engendered is the budget? Especially the female members of Parliament in that committee we are very keen on health, how much money has been aloocated to health? We are very keen on issues security because we are seeing what is happening in th country. The banditry across the country, violence against women, young girls and children. What intervention programs has the ministry captured in the budget to mitigate against gender based violence, early pregnancies, health issues now that HIV is on the rise. Covid we’ve been told there is a new surge. Social protection on the elderly, we are talking about duplication.

Hustler Fund – what is the impact? We have told the Auditor General to do an audit and advise, women enterprise, youth fund, there are so many funds scattered. Probably if they are consolidated, they’d have a better impact in terms of value for money.”